January 24, 2008

Opposition to Telecom Immunity Swells

With Congress back in session and the Presidential election season in full swing, the fight to prevent the Administration from granting immunity to the telecoms for illegal spying is heating up once again. Activists and bloggers alike are keeping the heat on.

First, Credo Mobile (formerly Working Assets) urged its members to write to Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, the three presidential candidates who are still in the Senate and who have said that they would oppose immunity. The results were tremendous: 67,000 emails were sent to the Senators.

Meanwhile, Jane Hamsher from Firedoglake has been urging folks to write to former Senator Edwards. Edwards can make telecom immunity a debate issue for the presidential candidates who still have a vote in Congress.

And of course, the amazing Glenn Greenwald continues to point out how Senator Harry Reid has the power to help stop the immunity train by supporting Senator Dodd and the handful of others who are willing to lay down on the tracks, but instead, Senator Reid seems to be shoveling in more coal.

Additionally, the Melman Group, a national polling organization commissioned by the ACLU, recently published a poll finding that 57 percent of likely voters opposed immunity for the telecommunications carriers that participated in the government's warrantless surveillance program, while only a third supported letting the telecoms off the hook.

For the Melman Group poll:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/strong-majority-voters-oppose-telecom-immunity

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/strong-majority-voters-oppose-telecom-immunityprescription cialis color=”#0000ff”>

For the complete post by EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt

Opsahl:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/strong-majority-voters-oppose-telecom-immunity

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/strong-majority-voters-oppose-telecom-immunity

For this complete post by EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/bloggers-and-others-push-presidential-candidates-immunity

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/bloggers-and-others-push-presidential-candidates-immunity

Filed under government, internet, security by al

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Stop The Spying Update

The Senate has begun discussing telecom immunity and the FISA Amendments Act on the Senate floor, and by many indications a vote is imminent. Congress needs to hear from citizens like you on this issue!

It is likely that there will be several rounds of amendments and filibusters in the Senate. In addition, the House version of the surveillance bill does not include immunity for telecoms, setting the stage for an inevitable reconciliation of differences in the House and Senate bills if the Senate does pass retroactive immunity. Congressional champions that have so far remained resolute in rejecting telecom immunity to defend the rule of law and privacy rights need your support now more than ever!

So visit StopTheSpying.org now to speak out against telecom immunity!

http://www.stopthespying.org

http://www.stopthespying.org otc cialis

For the campaign's Flickr page featuring submitted photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/stopthespying

http://flickr.com/photos/stopthespying

http://flickr.com/photos/stopthespying

Filed under government, internet, security by al

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Movie Organizer

Well, I have some great news for everyone who regularly checks out these weekly download articles! This week's just so happens to be a program that helps you organize all of the movies you may have on disk (for example, CD/DVD-R/RW). To be honest, I never really thought about using a program like this until I took a phone call here at the office from someone looking for a piece of software that could organize their movie collection.

My first thought was to just use MS Excel or even a text document program, but my thoughts were really basic in ways of organizing those records. I didn't realize there was software out there that does an outstanding job at this very thing. And better yet, it's all free!

The program is called Movie Organizer and it's from a company called OXD. Basically, it's a database with tons of categories to help you organize your media. Movie Organizer gives you, the user, a mind blowing number of categories and fields in which to input information about your media. You can even go out to MOOD (Movie Organizer Online Database) and download information about your movies to include with it.

You don't need to save the input data to the same database either. You can create a new database for any specific needs you have. All of the editable fields and databases also make the Movie Organizer very searchable. In fact, you can add search criteria to help you narrow down your search.

Here's an example of how this tailored search works. Say you want to find all the movies with John Candy in them. You would start by opening the Search menu, go to Search, select "actor" from the pull down menu in the searchable field and type in Mr. Candy's name. The search will look through that category to find all the John Candy movies and put them in a list. How cool is that?!

And what kind of movie organizing software would this be if it didn't have good printing options? Well, Movie Organizer has you covered with enough printing options to keep even the most meticulous of users more than happy.

The options and flexibility of Movie Organizer are really great and allow you to control the program to suit your specific needs. There is a great Help file located off the main interface as well. I suggest you read through it and do a couple of practice entries, searches and print jobs to get a feel for how the program works. I stress this, because this program uses databases and the saving and search components, in particular, are a little different than what you might be used to. Once you do it a couple times though, it's a snap!

You can download Movie Organizer here.

I ordering cialis hope this program helps you get your media organized and keep it that way!

Filed under software by al

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File Association Options

Q:
My JPEGs open up in my web browser, but I want them to open in the photo program I just installed. How can I make sure that files open where I want them to?

A:
You seem to be suffering from file order cialis without prescription association anxiety? This is common for people who have files open in the wrong program or a file type that isn't associated with any program. Well, there is a solution!

1. Open Explorer ( right-click the Start button and select Explore ) and head to a file you would like to either associate with another program or get associated with a program for the first time.

2. Once you get to the file, hold down your SHIFT key and right-click it. You will be presented with a menu that gives you an option to Open With… . Select that.

Oh, if you're using XP, you may not even need to hold down the shift key to get this to work. XP usually give you an Open with item on the right-click menu with a sub-menu full of options. If you want to change the association, you'll need to select the Choose Program option.

XP Open With picture:

Note – in the sample pictures, we'll re-associate a JPEG with Photoshop – it was original associated with Internet Explorer. So, in the photo below I hold the SHIFT key down and right-click a JPG file.

3. This will open up a screen where you can tell Windows what program to open that particular file with. Choose the program and make sure the little " Always use this program to open this type of file " checkbox is checked. Hit OK.

That should do it. Windows will now use the new file association when opening the file you just worked with.

Filed under OS XP, tech hints by al

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Windows XP Your Way: Customizing Shortcuts

Windows XP Your Way: Customizing Shortcuts
One way to use Windows XP better and more efficiently is to have a quick path to your most common tasks. Here's how to create useful shortcuts.

Everyone is familiar with the icons placed on the desktop, the shortcuts to open programs. Many are also aware that shortcuts can be placed in the taskbar. However, the average PC user is often unfamiliar with the various methods that exist for creating shortcuts, not just to programs but also for other functions. There are a number of methods for creating new shortcuts:

A discussion of each approach to creating shortcuts is given in the sections below. Examples of useful shortcuts are discussed here.

Drag and drop

The drag and drop method can be used in several ways. Either the left or the right mouse button can be used for drag and drop with somewhat different behavior. I prefer the right-click method and this will be the basis for the rest of the discussion. Dragging with the right-click brings up the context menu shown in the figure. One way to employ drag and drop is to use the menu entry "Copy Here" to make a copy of an existing shortcut in a different location. For example, an entry in the Start-All Programs menu can be dragged to the desktop or to the Quick Launch bar to place a copy of a shortcut in a more readily available spot. This method is probably already familiar to many. Shortcuts can also be made from files or folders by using the menu entry "Create Shortcuts Here". Open the folder containing the object whose shortcut is desired, hold down the right-click, and drag to the desired destination, such as another folder or the desktop.

The right-click “Send To” function

For making shortcuts specifically on the desktop, the Send To function of the right-click can be used (figure on the left). Simply right-click on the desired file or folder and select "Desktop (create shortcut)" from the "Send To" menu.

 

The right-click “New” function

The most general method for creating shortcuts uses the "New" function of the context menu that appears when a vacant spot within a folder window or on the desktop is right-clicked (figure on the left). Right-click in the folder where the shortcut is to be placed and select the entry "Shortcut" from the menu. The dialog box shown below will open. The location of the target item can be entered or the "Browse" function can be used to locate it.

If the "Browse" button is selected, the dialog shown below will open. Here you can select the file or folder that you wish to create a shortcut for (the target). Once the desired folder or file has been selected, Click the "OK" button.

The Create Shortcut window will reappear, this time with the desired file or folder entered as shown below. In this example, the folder "C:\Library" has been chosen.

Click "Next" and a window where the shortcut can be named appears. After entering a name or accepting the default, click "Finish".

Executable files and switches

Many PC users are not very familiar with the capability of some program and other executable files to have what are known as "switches". A switch is some additional code that modifies the behavior of a file when it is opened. It is added to the file name after a forward slash (or sometimes a dash) when invoking the file. The typical fornat is: somefile.exe /someswitch. One advantage of using the "New" function to create shortcuts is that switches can be added to the file name. An example of this added functionality is given in the discussion on another page of picking where Windows Explorer starts.

Switch for shortcut to command-line executable

Another example where a switch is needed is a shortcut to run one of the many command-line executables. In this case, the entry for the shortcut is cmd /k somecommand.exeIf the switch /k is omitted, the command-line window will not stay open.

Other functions in shortcuts

The "New" function is also the method for making shortcuts using the methods of rundll32.exe (discussed here), control panel applets (discussed here), and Windows Explorer commands (discussed here). It is also possible to set up shortcuts to email addresses and to Internet links.

Icons for shortcuts

When you create a shortcut, Windows will assign an icon from the target program or for some functions a generic icon.

Filed under OS XP, tech hints by al

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